Watson Cogen

Think Evap Cooling is Ineffective in Mild Humid Climates…Think Again.

Looking to increase their power and efficiency in a cool coastal climate, Los Angeles, CA based Watson Cogen began researching alternatives for optimizing their output.

During a period of growth at one of their refineries, Watson began struggling to provide enough steam for their daily production. Initially they installed evaporative coolers but soon discovered that during periods of high humidity the coolers weren’t enough . After some research, Watson’s principal engineer, decided to install fog systems to each turbine as a way to supplement the evap coolers.

What they discovered is that fogging alone added 2.5 MW of output per turbine. This drove them to conduct their own experiment and ultimately replace the evaporative coolers with a fog system. This increase in output and fuel savings, due to reduced inlet air pressure drop, could potentially pay for the cost of the fog system in just a few years.

What’s keeping you from doing your own experiment? To learn more about Watson’s findings read the full articlehere.